Hello Scheduling Blog

Ideally, employees would tell you weeks in advance when they won’t be at work, giving you ample time to plan and prepare. In the real world, however, people sleep through alarms, get into fender benders or just don’t show up. As an employer, you need to deal with every kind of absence, planned or otherwise. Here are three different kinds of non-planned absences and how to handle them: Read more ...

No matter where your hotel is located, you’re bound to encounter some sort of extreme weather. Whether you’re dealing with hurricanes, blizzards or tornadoes, it’s important to have a plan for handling this most unwelcome guest. Here are some tips to follow:
- Prepare for the worst: Before any problems arise, create an emergency action plan. Determine which weather conditions are most likely in your region, and what you need to do in case a storm hits. Keep necessary supplies well-stocked Read more ...

With online shopping and smart devices growing in popularity, it seems like showrooming, when people come into your store to test your products but ultimately buy them online, is here to stay. Here are 11 ways to address showrooming and convert your browsers into buyers:
- Offer competitive pricing: If you can lower your prices or offer price-matching for certain items, do so. Otherwise, consider honoring competitor coupons or having more frequent sales. Due to the costs of owning or renting a Read more ...

If you’ve ever been stuck on the phone with the typical call center, you can practically predict what they’re going to say. It’s no wonder that call centers have become the butt of jokes when so many recite the same tired scripts, over and over again. To keep your customers listening, here are five cliché phrases your agents should stop using and what they should say instead:
1. “The customer is always right.” Actually, the customer isn’t always right – and that’s okay. But while Read more ...

Scheduling retail employees during the holiday season can be a nightmare. In addition to secular holidays like Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, almost every major religion celebrates at least one holiday between November and January. In between all of those holidays, shoppers flock to the stores to buy presents or take advantage of sales, so there’s an increased demand for staff. Here are seven ways to make holiday scheduling easier for you and your employees:
Find out employee availability Read more ...

If you’re creating employee schedules, you’ve probably dealt with your fair share of complaints from employees. While you can’t eliminate these problems entirely, you can head off a few before they escalate.
Here are the top ten employee scheduling complaints and how to handle them:
1. “I’m not getting enough hours.”
Even the biggest stores can’t afford to give every employee full-time status – but that doesn’t mean employees should be shortchanged on hours. Try to distribute Read more ...

The first point of contact between customers and a business is the call center.
Call center employees are on the “front lines,” expected to resolve issues, handle complaints, answer questions and provide additional information. It’s important for call centers to be accurate and helpful, but also quick. Here are seven ways to make your call center run like a fine-tuned machine:
1. Examine critical call metrics regularly.
Don’t wait until you have a report due or, worse, your call center Read more ...

We have exciting news! Hello Scheduling recently joined the HRdirect family of brands.
HRdirect is the leader in practical HR products and services for smart employers. It's also the home of TrackSmart, a cloud-based employee attendance tracker. We believe the TrackSmart app is a perfect complement to Hello Scheduling's easy-to-use time clock and scheduling solutions. Down the road, we'll be looking into how that might work on one unified website. For now, though, there won't be any major changes.
We Read more ...

With a turnover rate of around 57%, retail is one of the hardest industries to find and keep great employees. That being said, your interview and hiring process has a lot to do with how successful (or not) your next hire will be at your company. Read more ...